Children Of Bodom have finally announced details about their upcoming album. The Finnish metallers named their 8th studio album Halo Of Blood and also unveiled the album artwork and tracklist. The cover art was created this time by Sami Saramäki (Follow The Reaper, Are You Dead Yet?, Hate Crew Deathroll) and you can see it below.

Mastermind Alexi Laiho commented: "Halo Of Blood is the 8th studio album from Children Of Bodom and believe it or not but we still managed to keep it fresh and new while still maintaining the elements that make COB sound recognizable. It's got the fastest and the slowest song we ever made and lyrics wise there are themes we had never had before. It's 10 new songs of pure Nordic metal and whether you enjoy it with a beer or a glass of water, I'm sure you will have a good time."

Bass player Henkka Seppälä states about the artwork: "We wanted to have a winter scene. Somehow it fits well with the atmosphere of the music and the composing session. It could be lake bodom actually, frozen, with people trapped under the ice. Very Finnish looking scene. We were really happy how Sami created the whole imagery!"

The band recorded the album in Finland's Danger Johnny Studios (located at a top secret, undisclosed location in Helsinki) with recording engineer Mikko Karmila, who worked with the band on their earlier albums Hatebreeder, Follow The Reaper and Hate Crew Deathroll and producer Peter Tägtgren (Marduk, Amon Amarth) who oversaw production of both vocals and keyboards on the record. The album will be mixed at Finnvox Studios.

Halo Of Blood tracklist:

01. Waste Of Skin
02. Halo Of Blood
03. Scream For Silence
04. Transference
05. Bodom Blue Moon (The Second Coming)
06. The Days Are Numbered
07. Dead Man's Hand On You
08. Damage Beyond Repair
09. All Twisted
10. One Bottle And A Knee Deep

Halo Of Blood will be released on June 6th in Europe and June 11th in North America via Nuclear Blast.

They seem to have lost their drive, and creativity over the past two albums. Hopefully they found their spark with this one. I agree with Windrider, it doesn't sound like a party album, from the track list, which is definitely a good thing.

Their last album was not only their worst to date, but it's the worst CD I own, so it can't possibly be worse than that. Can it?

Agreed, I hope they don't continue this downward spiral (though I don't have much hope). I also think it's one of the worst CDs I own, I'd have to go through them all thoroughly to find a shittier one... The only reason I ever bought it was because it was cheap and I got some free stuff with it (including a poster)

They've been on a downward spiral since Hate Crew Deathroll; I liked HCDR but it was still the weaker of the 4 albums featuring Alexander Kuoppola before Alexi through all their complex songwriting out the window.

"songs of pure Nordic metal"? Are they planning to start playing viking metal now?

That would be a huge improvement on the last record. I'm curious to see what they came up with. I'm hoping for keyboards in the vein of Hatebreeder and Follow The Reaper.

We're probably wasting our time hoping for such things but I'm still such an old school fanboy myself that I too am still hoping Alexi wakes up one day and decides to write another "True Children Of Bodom" album.

I still think they should change their name to something else and then have all post-HCDR albums pulled from the shelves and re-released with the new band name/logo and new album art.

ImperialTroll - 19.03.2013 at 17:38

I really disliked everything they made since Follow The Reaper. And I know they won't be able to top that one no matter how creative they'll get, so....meh. I'll still give it a listen out of curiosity tho.

Usually Peter Tätgren means quality so maybe they're going to kick ass (finally). The cover art is their best to date IMO and the fact that they reworked with Miko is good too. Will definitely listen before buying though.

That would be a huge improvement on the last record. I'm curious to see what they came up with. I'm hoping for keyboards in the vein of Hatebreeder and Follow The Reaper.

We're probably wasting our time hoping for such things but I'm still such an old school fanboy myself that I too am still hoping Alexi wakes up one day and decides to write another "True Children Of Bodom" album.

Gotta love his non-chalant answers to a lot of those questions, especially how he just kinda ignored the question about why Roope doesn't help write...

Wow... He obviously does not give a fuck about that interview. I used to look up to him when I was younger but he seems to get more and more jaded every year and cares more about drinking and being a "rockstar" than making good music.

I like the new album cover, I think its very original for their country heritage, or something like that. About the sound I think there's no chance to give, because did not lost one. I think that there's nothing wrong about evolving their sound, if they did one this one and their past 2 albums. I'm hoping for a new fresh sound.